OPEN LETTER TO THE TIMES

We write in response to an article “Corbyn linked to Lobbyists behind Istanbul bombers” published in your newspaper on 17th December, 2016. See article here.

We appear to be the so-called lobbyists referred to in the title of the article.

Peace in Kurdistan is a voluntary organisation formed in 1994 by the late Lord Avebury, the playwright Harold Pinter and several other leading writers and journalists with the objective of campaigning for a peaceful political solution to the Kurdish Question, as is stated in its title.

This campaign has widespread support from independent analysts, lawyers and academics in the UK, Europe and internationally including Noam Chomsky. Our list of Patrons includes MPs and members of the House of Lords from a broad spectrum of trade unions and UK political parties including the Labour Party, The Liberal Democratic Party, the Green Party, Plaid Cymru, Sinn Fein and the Scottish National Party, including, as your article points out, Jeremy Corbyn and Kate Osamor. We note with interest that you highlight only those two names out of the full list of 30 patrons.

Peace in Kurdistan is pleased to work with the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK), an organisation based in Brussels and working for a concerted strategy for democratic solutions to the Kurdish question, within existing states. We are also pleased to work with the HDP which is a democratic political party in Turkey, which had 80 MPs elected in the general elections in Turkey in 2015.

For some 17 years now, we have supported the international campaign for the de-listing of the PKK. We have also supported the release of its leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who we say is crucial to the success of peace negotiations with the Turkish government.

We continue to be convinced that there is a strong case for delisting the PKK. Since Ocalan was arrested in 1999 and sentenced to life in prison, he has become an advocate for peace and reconciliation among Turkish citizens, including those of Kurdish origin. Heralding the peace initiative of March 21, 2013, Ocalan wrote: “We reached the point where weapons should go silent and ideas speak.” We also continue to hold out hope that the peace initiative can be re-started as we believe that only a peaceful, political solution will be effective.

Your correspondent, in the same article, reports that Mr. Salih Muslim, co-chair of the PYD (Democratic Union Party), not as reported the YPG (People’s Protection Units), spoke at a meeting in Edinburgh University. The PYD is not a military organisation but a political party at the forefront of the political and diplomatic struggle against ISIS in Syria and campaigns for a political and democratic solution to the conflict in Syria. The system of Democratic Confederalism, within the borders of the existing state, includes “recognition of cultural, national and political rights, and develops and enhances their peaceful struggle to be able to govern themselves in a multicultural, democratic society” (PYD).

Your correspondent also mentions that the Turkish authorities recently issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Muslim. However, she fails to mention that Turkey, following the failed coup attempt in July of this year, has witnessed a deeply disproportionate and authoritarian reaction by the authorities, resulting in the issuing of thousands of arbitrary arrest warrants against all manner of people, from health workers, school teachers, journalists, academics and judges, including the one against Mr. Muslim.

Peace in Kurdistan was established to draw the world’s attention to the oppression of the Kurds and to seek a peaceful way forward to the Kurdish conflict. At the time, such oppression was intense. It seemed hardly conceivable that it could get worse. But it has – and PIK’s role in publicising the extreme violence and repression that the Kurdish people are living under in Turkey is as important today as it was in 1994.

There have been credible reports of widespread systematic human rights violations against Kurds in Southeast Turkey perpetrated by Turkish security services over the last year. The government continues to block independent investigations into allegations of killings of civilians, mass forced displacement and the widespread destruction of property within a system of blanket, round the clock curfews on 22 towns and city neighbourhoods. Peace in Kurdistan reiterates its calls for the Turkish authorities to allow the United Nations Office of the High Commission for Human Rights to enter and conduct an investigation. We would expect articles published by The Times to include at least some political context when discussing issues such as the Kurdish Question. We feel that both the tenor and content of the article in question did not meet the required press standards of accuracy and balance.

Yours sincerely

Dr Thomas Jeffrey Miley, lecturer of political sociology, Cambridge University

Thomas Schmidt, General Secretary, ELDH European Association of Lawyers for Democracy and World Human Rights, Germany

Michael Gunter, professor of political science at Tennessee Technological University, US

EMERGENCY APPEAL FOR AFRIN

Life in Afrin

Weekly News Briefing

Jeremy Corbyn issues statement of support for the National Demo

Message from Jeremy Corbyn to Kurdish national demonstration in London:
“I’m sorry not to be able to be with you today, but I send a message of solidarity with today’s demonstration, and with the Kurdish people, under sustained attack across the Middle East.
The conflict in Syria has been the trigger for an onslaught against the Kurdish people, who are defending their autonomy and their rights.
We are watching closely the alarming events that have been unfolding in Turkey in recent weeks, including the killing of civilians and destruction of Kurdish homes.
Any negotiated settlement of the Syrian conflict must include peace and justice for the Kurds, including in Turkey. And the Turkish government needs as a matter of urgency to restart the peace process with the Kurds and respect the rights of all its people.
We call for an end to repression of the Kurds and justice for the Kurdish people throughout the Middle East.”

Destruction and Repression in North Kurdistan

Freedom for Ocalan!

On the 19th anniversary of his kidnap and imprisonment by Turkey, we renew our call for Abdullah Ocalan to be freed as part of a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question.